It Never Rains (Except When it Does!): Drought and Deluge in the Making of Southern California

In this exciting talk based on his most recent book, Not So Golden State: Sustainability vs. the California Dream (2016), environmental historian Char Miller will lead us into the subtleties of Los Angeles’ peculiar relationship with water.

“For millennia, the Southland has been wracked by intense dry spells that have been swept away by furious floods. Hoping to control these climatological realities, over the last century regional boosters, real estate developers, engineers, and public officials have poured millions of dollars into the creation of systems to import water into Los Angeles and flush storm water out to sea. Not everyone agreed with the decision to construct this extensive and expensive network of aqueducts and channels, and the current mega drought wracking Southern California suggests we ought to reconsider the local solutions these earlier critics proposed; theirs may have been the road not taken, but that path may be our way forward in a climate-changed era.”

Cost : $15.00 Public, $10.00 Students with ID, and RSABG members

Please contact Education Assistant, Diana Nightingale at (909)-625-8767 ext. 251 or dnightingale@rsabg.org